Swindle's Scare
by RatchetsAngels
Summary: It's halloween and Frenzy is bored. Rumble helps him and decides to make a halloween story challenge with a group of Decepticons.


Author's Note: Hey, a quick drabble I decided to do between homework :P Sorry if it is sort of rushed, I'll try to fix it up later but I wanted to get it out on Halloween. Hope you enjoy.

Frenzy grumbled to himself as he sat in the rec room. It was Halloween night, a funny human holiday to him and he wanted to be out their playing his version of tricks on the fleshlings. Instead he was inside the rec. room with his twin and a few other Decepticons, unable to leave the Nemesis because of Soundwave's orders. He was still following his punishment from one earth week ago.

"Why don't we just use Skywarp as a target again?"

"No, I'm bored with pranking him and any others that I would want to are to close to Soundwave, Laserbeak or Megatron. I rather not up my punishment; I'm bored with just looking at these walls."

Rumble sighed as he toyed with his energon, thinking to himself. A grin broke out on his face and he slapped Frenzy's back, eliciting an angry noise from his brother which got the attention of a few fellow Decepticons. Rumble turned his grin towards them; a few looked away with unease at the smaller mech. "I know what we can do."

"What?" Frenzy asked as he placed his chin into his folded arms.

"Scary stories. We'll make it a challenge. Whoever can scare and I mean _really scare_, the other wins."

"What's the prize?" Frenzy looked at his twin with some interest.

"We'll figure it out when we get the group together." Frenzy looked around then back at his brother, a bit confused. Rumble got up onto the table and started speaking loudly to the mechs in the rec. room. "Who wants to join a challenge?"

The mechs in the rec. room; Vortex, Onslaught, Swindle, Thundercracker, Thrust, Spyglass and Viewfinder turned their attention to the cassetticon. Rumble could see the slight interest in their optics but when he looked at Swindle he knew that if the winnings were good then he would have at least one mech to play with him and his brother.

"What's the challenge" Thrust said over the rim of his energon cube.

"To tell scary stories and if you really scare anybody in the challenge then they lose and have to give you a prize."

"Oh? What would this prize be? Money?" Swindle jabbered out quickly and Frenzy could've sworn he saw a sparkling in those red optics.

"How about half of your energon rations that you've got?"

"That's a steep price." Swindle said while looking at Rumble with a calculating stare. Onslaught and Vortex looked at him, waiting for his move. If Swindle made a move into this challenge then they would, the energon rations were precious and it was a steep price Rumble was asking for. They spotted a smile on Swindles face, "alright, I accept. I don't think there is anything out there that can scare me and I have a few stories to try out."

Soon Rumble and Frenzy had everyone in the challenge. Some out of their pride and ego and others because they wanted to have fun and there wasn't much else to do. They sat in a makeshift circle in the chairs and listened as Rumble explained the rules. "Alright, this is pretty simple. One of us will tell a story and whoever makes any visible movement of fear will lose and owes half of their energon rations to the storyteller. If there are any disagreements about those movements then it will be a vote with the group, a majority vote."

"Sounds fine," Thundercracker said while crossing his arms.

"I'm going first then," Vortex sat at the edge of his seat, getting ready to tell his story.

Vortex didn't get any scares out of his first story, just a few snickers from his fellow Decepticons as he recounted one of his interrogations. The next few Decepticons didn't get any better reaction from the group. When Onslaught finished his story Frenzy jumped up and claimed the next spot. He looked around, darkening his optics to make it seem scarier. He settled his optics on Swindle the majority of the time as he spoke.

"This is a story about a merchant from Praxus who worked for his Sire. They owned a loaning shop and they made a lot of money off of this business. The family was doing very well and they lived a pretty comfortable lifestyle. When his Sire and Creator died the shop was his. He ran it just as his Sire did and his own family lived in the same comfortable means as he did while growing up. Then, one day, he got into some trouble. The government, who had been trying to take them out of business for a while, finally found a loophole in the laws. So the mech went to a gang lord for help and he bought some protection. Things were going smoothly as those pressures were off of him. The vorns were quiet as he and his bondmate raised their creations, living from day to day life. Then one orn a letter came to the mech. It said that his protection was gone, the gang lord had died and the new one would not help him. The pressures came back again as the government started causing problems for him." Frenzy looked at Swindle when he started the next bit, he could see the tension rising in the greedy mech as even fictional money became a problem from a fellow merchant. He knew that this story would work and he would be getting those rations. "The mech went on trial but he never stood a chance. The court brutally ravaged the case, tearing him down so he never stood a chance. This was the government he was up against and _nobody_ was willing to help him. The costumers knew that if the government found out that they had gone to this loan shark then they would be in trouble. The mech was all alone and he was a big trouble." Frenzy could see Swindle's arms shaking at this. _This is so easy_, Frenzy thought with glee. "The orn finally came. The mech stood before the judge as the verdict was said. The judge said 'Mech, you have gathered a lot of money from these poor sparks. You have cheated them at any turn. You have been running this business illegally and now you will pay the price. I sentence you to give back all the money to your costumers _and_ any remaining money will go to the charities in Praxus!'," Frenzy opened his mouth again to speak but he never got the chance.

Swindle gasped and shouted, "No! no, no, NO!"

Everybody quirked an optic ridge at Swindles outburst. Thundercracker chuckled to himself as he looked at the scared mech beside him. 'What's the matter Swindle, can't that mech share?"

"No! That is an unholy story. Any money he got he did so fairly!"

"Swindle," Frenzy got the merchants attention, "give me half of your rations."


End file.
